Always an Adventure...

I've been home for almost a month now, and when people ask me "How was Thailand?" I say, "Great!"   The weather was perfect. The food was amazing. The bargains were cheap. Evening entertainment - Settlers of Catan In class The company was fun. What more  could you want? But when they ask, "Did you do anything exciting?" I struggle to find something to share. This year, I really didn't do much, and that was OK. Part of the reason was that I've been there before, and I've done the elephants and tigers already. Part of the reason was that part of my fun budget was devoted to my layover in Singapore. And part of the reason was that I was there for other reasons... like to study and reconnect with my cohort members. Both of those goals were certainly achieved. It was kind of sad to realize that this was my last winter study term in Thailand. I may have to find an excuse to go back though! It was sad and happy, because that means...

 Maybe this post needs to start slightly before I made it to Singapore.  I guess it should start with the chicken...the one who wanted to cross the road....or should I say freeway... So my flight was super early in the morning, meaning I left the house before 5am to go to the airport, and my taxi was one of the only cars on the road. I had almost drifted off when I felt the driver slamming on the breaks. I looked up to see a chicken running right at us and then heard a bump. I don't know if the chicken was killed or not, but there was nothing the driver could have done to avoid it. On the left side, there was an accident scene, causing me to wonder if a chicken truck had somehow been hit, leaving poor little Kentucky to be hit by us. As he dropped me off, the driver said that he should have stopped and brought the chicken home for dinner. Anyways, chalk it up to ANOTHER weird thing that would only happen to me! Anyways, check-in etc was quite uneventful, and it was my fir...

This past year has been a lot about reflecting for me, which is good, and I still have 4 more months until my 30th birthday. I hope I can continue to work toward my goals in that time. In the meantime, life still happens, right? Christmas went by in a flurry of parties and events, and new years was kind of the same. There are only 11 more days until my trip to Thailand and starting new classes. But for now, it's time to think about what 2012 is going to bring. One of my kindred spirits, Krystal shared this blog on Facebook, and I was indeed inspired. The blog challenges us to come up with a word (One Little Word) to represent your hopes for the next year. On the blog it says,  You live with it. You invite it into you life. You let it speak to you. You might even follow where it leads.  There are so many possibilities .  Do check it out. A lot of people had some very nice sounding words, especially in the comments, like nurture, gravity, believe etc. And as I was reading...

Another AWESOME thing that relates to post #18 is:  Eating the last piece of dessert somebody left at your house . Which made me think of my small group. I have taught different kinds of English bible studies throughout my years in Taiwan, and I'm even writing a paper on it this semester. But this year is the first time I've hosted a home group. The focus is bilingual and rather than an English class, it's more like a bible study/discussion. I have about 8-10 people, and I host it in my house, which is great for a few reasons. First, it forces me to keep it clean! Also, as mentioned above, people bring yummy things to share, plus some interesting items like two bags of disposable plastic gloves. Last week is a perfect example of this. We didn't plan to have a potluck, but ended up with a feast! I baked Christmas cookies just for fun. Debbie brought kiwi from her recent trip to the mountains in Taiwan. Andy brought organic "ugly" oranges that he grew himself. L...

This is my last week to finish all my MA work for the semester..... busy, busy, busy

This summer I skimmed through The Book of Awesome during one of my lovely visits to Chapters. They have a pretty fun blog too, with entries like this : #986 When you pull up to a red light and the guy in front of you nudges up a bit so you can make a right turn Don’t you love it when you pull up to a red light in the right lane, and the guy in front of you notices and squeezes out into the intersection a bit, just so you can make your right turn a bit faster? What a great thing that is. Careful though — now it’s your job to give a sincere  Thank-You Wave  as you drive by, because you know they’re waiting for it and besides, did they just shave twenty seconds off your commute or what? AWESOME! Lately, I've seen a few awesome  things around here that I thought I could share. #1. A guy riding a bicycle while balancing two 10-foot bamboo poles on his shoulder. Dangerous, but AWESOME! #2. A lovely sunny day today in the midst of all the winter rain....

To all my American friends out there, Happy Thanksgiving! I know Canadian Thanksgiving was awhile ago, but when you live in an international community, all the holidays kind of blend together. This year, Canadian Thanksgiving happened to be the same weekend as Taiwan's Double 10 holiday (national day) so both had a long weekend. This weekend I'm planning a short trip to Taipei to watch The Help with friends and attend a Thanksgiving dinner with friends from many different countries :) I was thinking lately that it's been more than 5 years since I've seen snow! It's cooled off enough that I've started to take out my winter clothes, and even wore long pants the other day, but it's still above 20 degrees here. It certainly doesn't feel like winter. In fact, because of the work I do, the seasons get quite confusing. At the moment, I'm writing tests for March, proofreading things coming out in February, and preparing teaching lessons for December. Plus...